Trump caled the mayor of a vanishing island in Chesapeake Bay after a CNN story. He told the mayor that the island had been there for thousands of years and he predicted it would be there or hundreds of more years. This despite warnings that the island will vanish very soon. It has already lost 70% if its land mass.

Give a man a fish and he can eat for one day; give a man a fishing pole and he will find an excuse to never work again.Nollidj is power.

Here's why those bloated station wagons (estate cars to you Brits) look the was they do! This headline from ABC News: Pregnant SUV driver arrestedSo, those Ess Ewe Vees are pregnant? Ya suppose collisions are actually copulations?

Speaking of itch and scratch, when Ken and I were in Carbondale, we went to this excellent local brewery called Scratch. Guess what their wireless password was? I know; you'd all get it: itch. Shu cracked up!

The imprecision re itch/scratch made me consider the term flash flood. Today local talking heads warned that heavy rain here could produce flash floods. Flloded ares is a distinct possibility but I associate the term more with arid deserts where iy's dry ne minute and inundated with swift-moving water the next. In my entire life here I have only seen low-lying areas fill because water won't run off but never anything "flash." Chalk it up to hyperbole?

Give a man a fish and he can eat for one day; give a man a fishing pole and he will find an excuse to never work again.Nollidj is power.

I was sitting near the window in a small bar in Lanzhou about two months ago. The evening was dull and overcast but not raining. Then it was raining - hard enough that we couldn't see the cars parked outside.Thirty minutes later it wasn't raining.We left to walk back to the hotel and what should have taken about ten minutes took about an hour because many of the streets were under several feet of water. All of the subways were completely impassible.

That was in thirty minutes.

A month later I was in Yangshuo. It had been raining a little all day but there was no sign of flooding when I went to bed. When I got up the entire town, an area of about 3o square km was under between one and three metres of water. The new underground section of the shopping mall was filled with water.

When it is used transitively with an impersonal subject it means "cause to itch" or some figurative extension.

"Itch" meaning "scratch" seems to be only used with a personal subject, as in wiktionary's examples:

quote:

2002, M D Huddleston, Missing Paige:"What makes you suspect him?" Max asked as he itched his neck.2002 January 4, "Cyd" (username), Itching, in alt.support.mult-sclerosis, Usenet:I have to take both shoes and socks off! If I go bare foot I'm ok! I also get itching on my r/palm of my hand. I itch it so much that it's raw!2003 November 21, "Jim Patterson" (username), Behavior Therapy for Itchy Clothes?, in alt.support.ocd, Usenet:Basically I go through a half hour of trying to figure out of it is an fake OCD itch or a regular itch before I itch it (if I determine it's a "fake" itch, then I try not to itch it).2003, Ray Emerson, The Riddle of Cthulhu:Ulysses thumped his side and itched his back side, then slipped into his car.2004, Philip Smucker, Al Qaeda's Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror's Trail:But when we asked more about the famous man whose specter still commanded the heights, the guard just sneered at me, pointed his gun back toward the road with one hand, and itched his chin with the other.

I don't think that any of these could be confused with causative "itch".

Is "itch" ever used transitively with an impersonal subject to mean "scratch", where it could be confused with the causative meaning? I searched some corpora and couldn't find anything. In fact I couldn't find it used transitively except with a personal subject where it clearly means "scratch":

quote:

As I type this with two hands, lean over to grab the phone and take a sip of tea, I'm acutely aware of the normally unthinking movements behind each action. I've just itched my eyelid. And twiddled the ring on my finger.

Ali exaggeratedly wiped away the sweat on his upper lip. " It'll be nice to cool off in the water. " She itched her head. " I'm not hot. "

Originally posted by Kalleh:Speaking of itch and scratch, when Ken and I were in Carbondale, we went to this excellent local brewery called Scratch. Guess what their wireless password was? I know; you'd all get it: itch. Shu cracked up!

Sadly I could not get this link to load, Kalleh. If by any chance you meant Carbondale PA, I would gladly have driven up to meet you & Shufitz IRL at last! Our family made many a trip NW from our digs in NJ to my family in Ithaca, NY, & a few times Rte 80 was so bolluxed up that we went wandering, discovering Milford & Honesdale & Carbondale-- as well as the rural beauty of Sussex Cty NJ-- before getting back on track on Rte 81N...

Posts: 2061 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!

Originally posted by Proofreader:The imprecision re itch/scratch made me consider the term flash flood... In my entire life here I have only seen low-lying areas fill because water won't run off but never anything "flash." Chalk it up to hyperbole?

context is all. Around here (NJ suburb in metro-NYC area), water runs off of everything-- because everything is & continues to be overbuilt: every new house built creates more overflow runoff. So "flash floods" to us means, if you're driving to work, you're going to suddenly w/little warning lose both exteme right & left lanes, & danger of hydroplaning in middle lane; if you're at home, better make sure sump pump[s] are in working order...

Posts: 2061 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!

Originally posted by BobHale:..We left to walk back to the hotel and what should have taken about ten minutes took about an hour because many of the streets were under several feet of water. All of the subways were completely impassible... When I got up the entire town, an area of about 3o square km was under between one and three metres of water. The new underground section of the shopping mall was filled with wate.

Bob, is that about overbuilding in flood areas?

Posts: 2061 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!

Goofy, I know you are a descriptivist not a prescriptivist, & I take your meaning from these cites that 'itch' & 'scratch' have long been interchanged in historical usage. And surely, they are roughly interchangeable. But my interest is literary as opposed to common usage: I enjoy that distinction between the [latent] titillating urge to scratch vs the [manifest] response [scratching], & I admire literary authors who exercise the precision to distinguish between the two. It's a nuance.

Posts: 2061 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!

Most people have a driver’s license or other state-issued ID for various reasons (e.g. to drive or, as above, to help get oneself a job). But for one Hawaiian lady, one ID wasn’t enough — she needed two. That’s because her name — Janice Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele — features a 35-character surname, which was too long for the state’s drivers license to handle. As People explained, “the driver’s license, which does not include her first or middle name, has caused her travel problems, including being questioned by police at a traffic stop.” Ms. K also carried around a state ID, just in case, until the state changed the rules in late 2013, allowing for last names of up to 40 characters to appear on driver’s licenses.

Give a man a fish and he can eat for one day; give a man a fishing pole and he will find an excuse to never work again.Nollidj is power.